John 7:24 says,
Stop judging by mere appearances, and make a right judgment.
What do you think of when you see girls out on the street at night? What do you think of when you see African/American workers in south suburban Chicago? What do you think of those homeless people on the street, selling newspaper, begging for money? What do you think of pastors?
I think, Jesus' point is that we should not evaluate one's outer appearance, which is how the world see things; instead, we should evaluate one's heart and actions based on God's principles, which is righteousness. This is a big gray area for me, so I won't say anymore about it. You should think about it, too.
How should I judge correctly?
James 4:11 says,
Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.
God tells us not to say bad things about our brothers and sisters, especially if we are not sure. If we have confirmed there is a problem, we should approach the person instead of spreading dark rumors.
Lastly, as we learned a couple weeks back:
1 Corinthians 13:4-8:
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
ps: There is an interesting reading on http://www.boundless.org/2002_2003/regulars/office_hours/a0000681.html.
3 comments:
I think it is ok to judge someone's action (read: discern between right and wrong), but then lovingly (keyword) try to restore our brothers and sisters. But we just cannot judge a person's heart, cause we just don't know...
And if people know that we also are living in disobedience to God, our restoring words will become like a clanging cymbal...
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you.
I would like to give some thought based on the meaning of certain word.
Logically, judges do not forgive. If judges do forgive, then everything will fall apart.
When we talk about judge and justice, we talk about law and punishment.
However, we can give our counsel to help restore our brother and sister.
In the sense of law and justice, we have lawyer as legal counselor.
The role of a lawyer is not to punish his client.
Lawyer knows whether his client is right or wrong.
Despite what his client has done, he stays in his client side.
In that sense, lawyer don't sound so bad anymore eh?
However, they got bad reputation because they loves our money.
As a summary, based on terminology
judge = verdict, punishment
counsel = forgive, help, suggestion
So let's rephrase that.
"We should not judge someone, and give punishment. However, we are encouraged to give counsel regarding someone action"
Does it help?
Lukas, I'm not sure what your main point is. You said that "judge and justice" is "law and punishment". Do you mean that's what we generally mean, or what Jesus mean in Luke 6?
I agree that we should not simply judge and punish a person (eg: by saying bad things about that person, or yelling at him/her). Instead, we should think of helping that person by giving advice (is that what you mean by counsel?)
In addition to that, I was trying to touch on the other side of 'giving counsel'. How could I tell that a person does bad things / sins? Sometimes the issue is clear, sometimes not. Many times, I think I know better, and feel that I am better.
One example is:
A person is very thrifty in his/her spending, and I disagree to it because I think he/she should give more to the church or spend more with his/her friends. I shouldn't make this judgment because God might have trusted him/her to use the money for something else.
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